kawasaki 250klt resurrection

[sstark82]

167048167049167047Well a buddy and I have decided to restore a classic KLT250. He picked it up a while back pretty cheap and got her running great but she looked like she had been beat with the ugly stick over and over again. If your familiar with this particular model, they really arent that great looking to begin with compared to the nice lines of the Hondas.
Anyways, I first started to ride it about a week ago and I must tell you, she impressed me alot. When you flip the switch on the "Tank" it starts up the fuel pump and then once in neutral she fired right up like she had been waiting to prove herself. I took her around the yard and got familiar with the way it handled and before long I was doing donuts and enjoying this little gem.
As we were sitting around talking about it we both agreed that it was a great running three wheeler, but man she was ugly. SO....we decided to take her down to the frame and do a restoration on her.

[sstark82]

Here is where we are right now. We stripped her of her plastics, wiring harness,racks,gas tank(which was a pain to get out). Pretty much everything that was bolted down and tied onto it at one point or another. Then we sandblasted the frame,engine,and stripped the old paint off the plastics. We bought some plastics paint prep stuff from Duplicolor and then got some Duplicolor primer and Green paint to do the Fenders. (I know,I know, paint and plastics = mess to some people) but we wanted to go with a bright "here I am" color scheme. We will see how it holds up. I will post more as we progress and keep you guys posted. Any feedback or questions are welcome.167050167051167052167053167054

[sstark82]

We are thinking of blacking out the motor with High Gloss Engine Enamel with Kawasaki Green accents. Black frame with the aluminum rims shined back up to original. May even do some crazy stripes or something on the tank, going to the fenders.

[barnett468]

Hello

Congratulations on your find. I did a lot of the testing on those when I worked at US Kawi Rand D so I’m kind of fond of them

What year is it?

The original rims on those were steel and gold in color so if you have aluminum ones you got a big bonus.

I can’t pull up your photos, can you post them directly or a link to photobucket etc?

Your eng paint scheme sounds cool. Highlight the Kawi letters in green or something, maybe paint the outside edges of the cylinder fins high temp green. How about a bright green frame and black fenders with yout green accents?

Whatever you do it will be cool to you and that’s all that matters.

That bike will go thru 1 ½ feet of water all day long for a week without missing a beat. I know I had to do that test, lol.


Hope the rim info helps.

[dougspcs]

Barnett, what browser program you using? I see you can't open pics and the edit button isn't working for you..

You using that piece of crap Google Chrome..?

Sorry Stark, not trying to jack your thread..I'm not a Kawi guy but that thing has some nice bones. Looks like a decent project..nice to get them when they haven't spent 25 years being monkeyed with by someone.

[barnett468]

Hello Sstark82


Does it have the dual shock front suspension?


Hello Dougspcs

No I'm not using that piece of ____ google chrome browser, I'm using the piece of ____ mozilla firefox and the ultra slow piece of ____ internet explorer browsers. I not only can not use the edit button I don't see one anywhere, it simply doesn't exist. Someone told me they thought they had seen me edit posts before so I looked on several old posts and couldn't find any but he said he had an edit button next to the "reply" and "reply with quote" button. Ain't there for me! Believe me I wish I did. Even though I have been longer than the 60 day introduction period do I still have to start 10 new topic posts or is that just 10 reply posts? Could this be the problem? When I click on photo links it says I do not have permission to view or enter etc.

[FLynes]

Who in their right mind painted that poor thing red????? Glad to see you're putting her back to her original colors.....Kawi's just don't look right in anything other than green. I miss my KX125......

Keep it up! I need something to look at, now that my 185S is almost done.

[sstark82]

Barnett, not too sure on the year. It does have aluminum rims and dual front suspension. It looks like an old school bobber front end. We finally fixed up our sandblasting cabinet to get the various small pieces and nuts n bolts shined up. It's actually moving pretty quickly, we should be ready to paint her up tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement everybody!

[Worden18]

I like to see things like this. I've never seen any of the Kawi wheelers in person, but I still like them. 30 years ago I had a 1980 KX 80; loved that little green sucker. Good luck on your project; I will be watching with enthusiasm. :)

[barnett468]

Barnett, not too sure on the year. It does have aluminum rims and dual front suspension. It looks like an old school bobber front end. We finally fixed up our sandblasting cabinet to get the various small pieces and nuts n bolts shined up. It's actually moving pretty quickly, we should be ready to paint her up tomorrow. Thanks for the encouragement everybody!


Hello


Thanks for the update, it's probably an 84, it should say in the steering head tag or vin. Saw the photos on my phone for some reason. Can you post them directly? Yeah old school "springer" front when the shocks wear out, lol.

WARNING - I saw you have a rack. We in R and D all called that the rack of "DEATH" or "spinal comression", lol. It was my job to try and break the bike during endurance testing so I motocrossed it, hit a bump a little hard, rear kicked up, rack hit me hard in the tail bone. I turned green, got dizzy, and almost got sick. Please do not ride with a passenger or the way I did. You could put a couple cross bar foam pads on it for safety.


Look forward to pics.

[sstark82]

Appreciate the heads up on the racks barnett. I don't know any other way to post them than through the way they offer. Nothing much was done today, the wind and rain don't mix too well for an outside operation. Humidity was too high to try and paint. It seems like when I'm off the weather is terrible,then yhe opposite once I work. Go figure. :(

[barnett468]

Appreciate the heads up on the racks barnett. I don't know any other way to post them than through the way they offer. Nothing much was done today, the wind and rain don't mix too well for an outside operation. Humidity was too high to try and paint. It seems like when I'm off the weather is terrible,then yhe opposite once I work. Go figure. :(


Hello sstark82

No problem, I wouldn't have mentioned it unless there was a real potential to get hurt by it if ones not careful. You can probably invision that now by looking at it. As far as the photos go don't worry about it but thanks for the thought would have been cool to see on a bigger screen than my phone, lol.

[sstark82]

Well we finally have a decent day to paint and I am working. Go figure. I did manage to get a few odds and ends blasted and painted though. 167276Muffler looks pretty good, Battery Box and Headlight look new and the Exhaust flange looks amazing to me.

[sstark82]

167277 This didnt attach earlier so here is the other stuff.

[sstark82]

We are slicking the Frame, Engine, Rims etc. However the plastics look like Hell. There are deep gouges and rough spots all on them. We are thinking of Bedlinering them. Any ideas??

[FLynes]

Try this stuff:

http://www.urethanesupply.com/Flex-Filler-1/Flex-Filler-Tube-Kit/

[sstark82]

Ok, here is some updates for everyone. Finished sandblasting and priming the frame. Also sandblasted and painted the motor. We were going to shoot it with the High Heat Aluminum which is 1300 degrees then hit it with high gloss high heat paint. But the Aluminum looks too good to cover up so we are going to leave it and then accent it with black and green. Next is the Rear Axle sandblast and Black. 167318167319167320

[sstark82]

Flynes that urethane would be great, I would have to pretty much cover the whole durn thing though. There isnt really a square inch on the plastics that isnt either flaking off from sun damage or scratched all to heck. I wasted a whole can of plastic adhesive and primer/paint on it already. Guess you learn as you go. I think we are going to go the bedliner way. From what I understand, you can paint it pretty easily once it has set up.